WND

Israeli soldier testifies to miracle in Gaza

'I would not have been surprised if there were dozens of dead'

Published: 08/23/2014 at 6:15 PM

Text smaller

Text bigger

One of the many Israeli soldiers dispatched to Gaza over the years to eliminate rocket-launching equipment and lower the threat of destruction to Israeli citizens has testified to the miracles he witnessed.

Such as a day of firefights, explosions and terror, with the only resulting injury a scratch that was handled with a baby wipe.

The testimony comes from Ariel Siegelman, who was with an Israeli campaign a few years ago.

The same issue, arose, however, in recent weeks in a conflict between Israel and Gaza that erupted when Hamas fighters in Gaza began a rocket attack on Israel.

WND reported then that an operator of Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system said he personally witnessed the “hand of God” diverting an incoming rocket.

Israel Today translated a report from a Hebrew-language news site, which noted the Iron Dome battery failed three times to intercept an incoming rocket headed toward Tel Aviv.

The commander recalled: “A missile was fired from Gaza. Iron Dome precisely calculated [its trajectory]. We know where these missiles are going to land down to a radius of 200 meters. This particular missile was going to hit either the Azrieli Towers, the Kirya (Israel’s equivalent of the Pentagon) or [a central Tel Aviv railway station]. Hundreds could have died.

“We fired the first [interceptor]. It missed. Second [interceptor]. It missed. This is very rare. I was in shock. At this point we had just four seconds until the missile lands. We had already notified emergency services to converge on the target location and had warned of a mass-casualty incident.

“Suddenly, Iron Dome (which calculates wind speeds, among other things) shows a major wind coming from the east, a strong wind that … sends the missile into the sea. We were all stunned. I stood up and shouted, ‘There is a God!’

“I witnessed this miracle with my own eyes. It was not told or reported to me. I saw the hand of God send that missile into the sea.”

The story has similarities to Siegelman’s account of his excursion into Gaza during an earlier conflict.

He joined the special forces of the Israeli Defense Forces and was among hundreds dispatched at that time.

He recalls being asked about his dog tags, identifying numbers used to link a name to what’s left after a bombing.

Then he was handed a laminated card with a prayer for going to battle, and a rabbi “yells at the top of his lungs,” “You are the army of Israel, and you’re going to war. You will not be afraid because God is going out to war with you.”

Then came the battle.

“It was like walking into hell,” Siegelman said. “The world is full of explosions, full of smoke. It was war.”

Such was the violence that he said he would not have been surprised “if there were dozens of dead men.”

Personnel carriers with open hatches littered the hillside.

“How many people got killed?” he asked his commander.

“Nobody,” came the reply.

“One guy was injured. … a medic was using a baby wipe,” Siegelman said. “That was the injury in our unit.”

He said it was just a short time later when the sun rose, and a “huge double rainbow” appeared in the sky.

Solders “reached their hands to the sky,” to say, “He is with us.”

Israel and Gaza have had ongoing conflicts for years, and sporadic outbreaks of violence, including in 2009, 2010 and 2011. This year’s fight is quiet right now under a cease-fire, but an estimated 2,000 people have been killed so far.